Chargeback after one year.

Is it possible?

[radeckd]

I've read that customer is allowed to dispute transaction within 60 days from the date of statement as unauthorized. But there is a law that allows to dispute tranaction without time limit if the item is not as described, or defective or for any other reason other than unathorized transaction. Let say the item stopped working and customer is out of warranty period which was for 6 months or year etc.
Did it happen to anyone? What was the result of chargeback?

[MrHard]

I have seen one at a year after purchase. The response: Our return policy is 30 days. Any issues with the warranty must be addressed directly with the manufacturer as stated on the warranty card. Easy win.

[jackgordon]

usually a cardholder has 180days to make a chargeback.... 1 year is pretty much unheard of, in the UK anyway. It seems like you are unlucky, sorry!

[MrHard]

Actually, it was much worse then I stated.

This particular customer kept doing a chargeback on the same purchase continually, maybe every 3 months or so. This was after we had addressed the chargeback from the bank in writing and it was found in our favor through formal means. The dispute was over the customer not accepting the restocking fees and return shipping fees.

They could not pull the money out of our account after we won so they tried a different approach.

A chase bank rep would call about every two months and say the customer had charged back the purchase again, and try to "negotiate" and put us on a conference call. If they can make a case that you are still negotiating and put it on record then the chargeback deadline gets extended. That was why they were able to keep charging back the purchase even after we had won.

I finally told them to stop harrassing our business and hung up, have not heard from them since.

[edited by: MrHard at 2:29 am (utc) on May 25, 2009]

[jackgordon]

MrHard
That makes sense now. I haven't seen a case like that before, but I understand why. It would be annoying for the cardholder if they enquired on the 179th day... only to be told the next day their case would be thrown out :)

That said... I do think its unfair that someone can continually make attempts even though it has been won in your favour. They can't just make things up as they go along! If they were unhappy about restocking fees, they should have mentioned it at the time...

[bcc1234]

A few years ago, I had an AMEX card holder who requested a chargeback stating "she never received the item".

It's been a while so my timeline might be a bit off, but this is the jist of the story:

It was all initiated like a week or so from the day she placed the order. Maybe 3-4 business days. Not even enough time for ground shipping to deliver the item.

I've seen that happen before with some nervous customers, so I simply sent in the tracking number which was showing that the package is in transit. I contacted AMEX and told them the same thing, and faxed them the response with a tracking number.

At that time (I guess AMEX got her to agree with the charge), the chargeback was resolved in my favor.

Some time later, I receive the return from that customer, with that item damaged, and our original invoice/packing slip wasn't in the package.

Normally, I wouldn't care about it, but since that person previously initiated such strange chargeback so soon, I decided to check on it.

After looking at the tracking number history of her return package and the tracking number history of our original shipment to her, I noticed that she mailed back the "return" two days before our item was delivered to her.

So I sent her an e-mail asking what's up with that.

She did not reply. And of course, she did another chargeback on the original transaction. This time, she claimed that the item was damaged and that I'm unwilling to refund the purchase.

I sent all tracking numbers and the explanation to AMEX, talked to their support, and the chargeback was again ruled in my favor.

Haven't heard from that customer ever since.

I have to give props to AMEX, not just because of how they handled it in my favor, but the support staff I was talking to actually seemed to care and understand the situation instead of simply following the flow-chart.